I often find myself in conversations with co-workers and clients about the things that we see as common “gotchas” when scaling Salesforce as an organization grows — especially in a manner that supports data longevity, accounts for changes in people and processes over time, and can be easily accessed and understood from the Salesforce.com Reports Tab. Perhaps this series of blog posts is a more granular follow-on to an earlier blog post of mine, “Using the Right Tools for the Right Jobs with Salesforce.com.”

The first rule of fundraising is this: It’s all about relationships. So, when you’re looking for a new fundraising system, keep that rule front-and-center. How will the system I’m considering help me better identify, cultivate and manage relationships? How will the system connect our big picture goals with our day-to-day operations?

Today, fundraisers can reap the benefits of constituent relationship management (CRM). The beauty of a incorporating a CRM system for fundraising is that it’s designed to help you identify, cultivate and manage important relationships. It’s not like the fundraising databases of yesterday — not just a place to toss in data. It’s not designed to torture you with arcane processes or challenge you to a wrestling match every time you want information. No, a good CRM system can actually reduce the time you spend in front of technology and increase the time you spend in front of people, so you can develop relationships (instead of carpal tunnel).

This month, I became a Salesforce MVP. I’m extremely honored. And excited.

Here’s why: Salesforce created the MVP program to recognize standouts in the Salesforce community for their leadership, expertise and ongoing contributions. Being selected as an MVP puts me in the company of some amazingly talented people (many of whom I have admired for years!) who are sharing their expertise and lessons learned by answering questions, writing blogs, leading user groups, sharing best practices, and more – all to help each other, and the entire Salesforce community, use one of the most effective and efficient tools available for CRM.

Your nonprofit may have data and processes from one program running smoothly, while another program just isn’t as efficient. This isn’t unusual. And, it makes sense: It’s nearly impossible for nonprofits to tackle consolidating data and streamlining processes across the entire organization, all at once.

But, with a CRM system like Salesforce.com in place, nonprofits have a single platform for managing all of their data and processes, and can add to it as needed.

Data. We keep it, store it, and long to take a deep dive into it. But when we leap into the deep end of our data pool, we often find ourselves struggling to even tread water.

After over 35 years, USENIX had an ocean of membership data. They had customized their database to fill their needs over time, but it could no longer stretch to meet their contemporary needs. It was becoming a challenge to answer questions such as “How many attendees from our last conference are also USENIX members and live in this ZIP code?”.